


Farther Than I've Ever Seen

by SarcasmFish (Alcyonidae)



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 11:48:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6609601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alcyonidae/pseuds/SarcasmFish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He reached a hand out to her and the laughter left her, replaced instead by breath that lingered too long in her lungs. She stared at the offered hand, her response no longer the proud talk of the leader she was playing and more the mumbling of the nervous girl she really was. “I… I can’t even reach the first branch, Alistair.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Farther Than I've Ever Seen

“Alistair!” The mage traipsed her way through the forest, stepping high over the underbrush. She used the staff in her hand to help make her way, steadying her balance over fallen trees and other detritus.

She lifted a hand to her lips to call out into the stillness again. “Alistair?”

Silence met her call, just as it had for the past half hour she had been searching. She stopped, planting the staff down into the ground and casting her gaze around the empty forest. A little scowl met her lips. Where could he be?

Something fell, something small. She immediately readied herself, whipping the staff into a defensive position and calling a spell to her fingers.

“It’s just me! Please don’t burn me.” She stepped back to look up into the tree nearest her, lifting a hand to shield her eyes from the small windows of sun between the leaves. Sitting on a branch several feet above her sat the warrior she had been searching for. He had shed his scaled armor in favor of the breeches and padded shirt worn beneath it. She couldn’t help but note what good camouflage his golden hair and eyes gave him against the dying leaves of fall.

He gave her a little wave. She set her hand upon her hip, squinting up at him, staff lowered back to her side.  
“Oghren was looking for you.”

“Yes, I know. He wants to challenge me to drinking. Morrigan may think I’m stupid, but not stupid enough to take up a challenge like that from Oghren.” His fingers were peeling the bark from a stick, letting the cast off pieces fall to the leaf litter below.

“You’re hiding.” She stated with a little smirk, batting away a bit of bark aimed her way.

“Precisely.” He swung his legs that dangled from the branch back and forth. He wasn’t wearing shoes. He wasn’t holding onto anything. Her grip on the staff tightened.

“And what do I tell him?”

“Nothing?” An idea suddenly crossed his features, lighting up his eyes. “Come up and join me! It’s a beautiful day.”

She sputtered and laughed, taking a step back from the tree and the grinning man perched above her. She had never stood on anything higher than a table.

“Come on. It’ll be fun!” He cast aside the stick and easily clamored down to the lowest branch. “The last two Grey Wardens of Ferelden... sitting in a tree.” He paused a moment, brow furrowed. “No, wait. Don’t finish that rhyme.”

She shook her head, laughter still on her lips at the thought of her in that tree. “No. No, I don’t think so.”

He reached a hand out to her and the laughter left her, replaced instead by breath that lingered too long in her lungs. She stared at the offered hand, her response no longer the proud talk of the leader she was playing and more the mumbling of the nervous girl she really was. “I… I can’t even reach the first branch, Alistair.”

“Just take my hand and I’ll pull you up.”

She stepped forward tentatively. She found she wanted it. She wanted to reach out to him, wanted to share this with him. And, for once, it wasn’t just because she trusted him.

How bad could it be? Birds and squirrels and other animals lived their entire lives in trees. She could surely sit on a branch with no troubles.

She dropped her staff to the side and reached out to meet his hand, surprising herself with her sudden bravery. He grinned and plucked her from the ground with ease, lifting her to stand beside him as if she were a bird that had fallen from a nest.

She immediately clung to the tree trunk, feet shuffling on the flexing branch to find the safest ground. She swore she could feel the tree swaying like a drunkard through the streets. A weak young branch poked into her side. She grit her teeth and stared straight ahead of her, repeating the mantra to not look below her. She wondered how she could stop hugging the tree and sit down, but Alistair was already scaling into the branches above her, sending yellowed leaves down into her hair.

“More?” she squeaked. “I... I thought we were going to sit?”

“Just a little more. Think of the view up there! I bet we could see all the way to Gwaren!”

She dug her fingers into the tree bark, watching him above her. He climbed like he fought, like it was something he had been doing since birth and knew no surprises or fear from it. He reminded her of the mice in the tower, the way they could scale a wall and scamper across ceiling beams like it was flat ground.

He stopped at her silence and glanced back below him. She shifted her focus to the tree trunk in front of her, to a beetle weaving its way between the crags of the bark, oblivious to her growing terror. The stupidity of her actions finally struck her. She had intended to crawl up here and share time with Alistair, her fellow Warden. Now she was stuck, unable to follow him and unable to flee. She scowled at the unconcerned insect. Alistair would see her terror, see her weakness, and be reminded of the silly little mage he let lead their party. What would he tell the others? That she was 5 feet off the ground and shaking like an apprentice that had spilled tea on one of the Tower books? Would he laugh? Or worse, he could leave her here alone until her legs gave out.

“Hey.” His voice broke her free from the spiral of regret. He had moved back down, she could hear him just a few feet above her. She kept her eyes on the tree, refusing to let him see the frustration that was prickling at her eyes in the form of traitorous tears. He would see the fear shaking her shoulders and whitening her fingers, but he would not see it in her face. Pride would not allow it.

“Need some help?” His voice was soft, not at all like the normal teasing or boisterous tone she was used to hearing from him. She puffed up her courage, readying herself to scowl at him, to use her words to bite and scratch. No, thank you, she did not need help. She would get herself down and he could sit up here until the Blight turned them all to ash. This had been a silly idea. They had Darkspawn and demons to fight. They were not children in some fairy tale book climbing trees. That was all fiction.

She looked up at him and the fearful anger blew away on the breeze that wove its way through the leaves. His hand was stretched out to her again. There was no disgust or laughter or pity in his features, only a small smile of understanding. If she asked he would help her down and never mention her scarlet embarrassment ever again. They would return to camp and he would make a joke at his own expense to spare her. But she found that strange longing again to join him in this adventure, something that was his, something that he wanted to share with her of all people, the small Circle Mage that had scarcely seen a tree let alone climb one.

With a filling breath she reached out to grasp his hand, quickly, before fear could change her mind. She gripped it tightly with sweaty palms and trembling fingers. He met her with a solid grip, his hand easily engulfing her own. He pulled her up to his level again, but this time did not relinquish her hand. When she stared at him quizzically he only smiled wider.

They climbed together then, one branch at a time. Alistair moved with the same grace and ease as before, untroubled by his extra burden. The mage focused on her feet placing them solidly where she could. She put her trust in his hand, quite literally. In places where she could not reach, he lifted her upward without a thought. When a noisy gale of wind shook the decaying leaves around them he squeezed her hand and joked about what terrible squirrels they made.

“Back in Redcliffe there was this huge tree I’d climb nearly every day. Once, I tried to make myself a little house up there. I brought some books and a blanket, a bit of food. But when it got dark and cold an old owl showed up.” He was talking, rambling, as he often did and she tried to let his steady familiar tone stabilize her. “I must have been too close to its nest. It kept cooing and hooting at me. I threw some bread at it, but it just moved to another branch. Eventually, I gave up and just went back home. If the Templars had known I got scared out of a tree by an owl I wonder if they still would have taken me in.”

Eventually he stopped. She kept her eyes fixed to the branch she was gripping, fearful that if she looked down she’d suddenly topple them both back to the forest floor. The last two Grey Wardens of Ferelden dead from falling out of a tree. Oh, how the flora had done the job Loghain could not.

“Look. Here, step up so you can see.” She climbed two more branches with his help. He wrapped an arm around her waist to steady her on the thinner upper branches.

Her head finally poked free of the leaves and into the sky. She was above the canopy now and could see over the tops of most of the other trees. They swayed and rolled in the breeze, a giant’s colorful quilt of oranges, reds, and greens. Columns of clouds washed above them, framed against the blue of the sky like watercolor paintings she had once gawked at in a book. A few birds skimmed their way above them, flying in little patterns before ducking back into the layers, back to their homes and families. It was all so free. It sang in her blood and made her feel restless and eager.

“It’s beautiful.” She gaped.

Alistair laughed beside her, his warm breath tickling her hair. “I was wrong. I guess we can’t see Gwaren.”

She turned to grin at him. “Maybe not. But it’s farther than I’ve ever seen.”

**Author's Note:**

> It took all of my self restraint to not put an Adventure Time reference in this story. "Up a Tree" is one of my favorite episodes.


End file.
